(FSB Magazine) -- You would think the former chief marketing officer for Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits would have had his fill of cartoon-themed fast-food restaurants. But you would be wrong. In August, Lamar Berry -- who oversaw Popeyes' growth from ten franchises to 1,000 -- opens the first store in his new Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes chain (dagwoods.us.com) near his headquarters in Clearwater, Fla. His partner? Blondie scribe Dean Young.

The menu will run from traditional $5 sandwiches and subs to the Dagwood, a 1.5-lb., six-inch-tall monster that features 17 toppings. "It's really hard to get in your mouth," laughs Young. Berry, 53, expects to have close to 1,000 shops open by the end of 2008. "They have immediate brand recognition, and that's a huge advantage," says Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a Chicago analyst firm that tracks the fast-food industry. "Still, you have to wonder why they waited so long. It's not like Subway or Quiznos just began to grow."